Mike DeCourcy

LAS VEGAS - Tyler Zeller is getting ready for practice. More practice. Two years of college, only 42 games, not even 600 minutes played. But lots of practice. What would Allen Iverson make of this guy's career?

Zeller, soon to be a junior at North Carolina, is part of the USA Basketball Select Team of college players who've been practicing against the senior national team during its pre-world championships training camp.

"It's gone pretty well. Practicing over here is great, being around all these college guys, kind of getting a different view as far as the European style of play," Zeller said. "Going against the NBA guys is always great. It's a quicker game. You've got to be stronger. It kind of gives you a different dynamic -- shows where you've got to be to be able to play at that level."

Zeller, a 7-0, 240-pound center, obviously wants to be a pro, but right now he'd love to play at any level. He has seen each of his two college seasons damaged by injury.

The first was not spoiled in its entirety because he recovered from a fractured wrist to at least play a role in the Tar Heels' 2009 national championship. The second was ruined, more or less, as Zeller developed a stress fracture in January and had to watch for 10 games as his team devolved into this past season's biggest flop.

"It's highly disappointing, but something I can't do anything about," Zeller said. "I just try to make the best of it. Hopefully this year I can stay healthy all year and have a great year."

North Carolina needs Zeller to be both available and excellent, because it has, essentially, no other options. With Ed Davis off to the NBA and the Wear twins transferred to UCLA, Zeller -- even with his limited experience -- is the only veteran power player left from last season. Stringy John Henson will have to play some power forward, and career reserve Justin Knox transferred in from Alabama. That's about it for Carolina size.

Zeller said coach Roy Williams tells him, "It's not that I want you to be good; I need you to be good." Zeller certainly has ability. In only 17 minutes per game last season, he averaged 9.3 points and 4.6 rebounds. And Zeller is taking his new responsibility seriously.

"You've got to have a lot more attention to details," he said. "You've got to prepare more. When the season comes around, you've got to be ready, or we might have another year like last year."

Zeller could have gotten more games if he'd accepted an invitation last summer to compete on the United States U-19 national team, but he felt his summer school obligations prevented that. This year, he has an internship instead of a class and easily can make up the week he missed to be with the Select Team.

In a gym filled with tall men, Zeller comes across as immense. Nobody needs to pad his height to dress him up as a more promising prospect. He is a legitimate center. That has helped in his dealings with the NBA players.

"The first day we were here we worked college kids against college kids, and he looked good," said Villanova coach Jay Wright, coaching the Selects along with Washington's Lorenzo Romar. "But the past two days when we scrimmaged against college guys, his size was really a factor for us, a positive factor.

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"I was really impressed with -- defensively, the way we were playing ball screens -- how he was able to protect the basket. And then offensively, when they switched we were able to go inside to him. It was really interesting to me that he actually looked better against the NBA guys than the college guys."

Zeller said the stories he'll tell of his brush with NBA greatness will mostly involve the sequence in which he nailed four jump shots in five possessions. "Two of them highly contested, the other two wide open," he said. The guy challenging the shots? Brook Lopez, the New Jersey Nets' gifted young center. So yeah, it was a pretty big deal.

Like his brother Luke, who played at Notre Dame, Zeller always has had the ability to make jump shots. Though he'll need to provide an interior presence for the Tar Heels, Zeller promises he'll be "spacing out" when it's called for and will be more willing to fire jump shots at the end of UNC's secondary break.

"There's been a few shots I got yelled at for not shooting," Zeller said. "It's definitely encouraging to be yelled at for not shooting rather than shooting."

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